Molecular mechanism on environmental sensing of plants by organelle interaction

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project Area: Environmental sensing of plants: Signal perception, processing and cellular responses
• Project/Area Number: 22120007
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Review Section: Biological Sciences
• Research Institution: National Institute for Basic Biology
• Principal Investigator: NISHIMURA Mikio 基礎生物学研究所, 研究力強化戦略室, 特任教授 (80093061)
• Project Period (FY): 2010-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: ペルオキシソーム / クロロプラスト / オルガネラ相互作用 / 環境応答 / ペルオキシソーム機能転換

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In photosynthetic tissues, peroxisomes participate in photorespiration along with chloroplasts and mitochondria. By visualization of plant organelles, we found that thses peroxisomes along chloroplasts change from spherical to elliptical and their physical interaction area increased in light condition. A recent femtosecond laser technology to analyze adhesion between the organelles succeeded in estimating their physical interactions under dark and light conditions. Light increased the strength of the peroxisomes-chloroplast interaction, showing that their light-dependent interactions are quantitatively elucidated by in situ laser analysis.
In order to understand their interactions, we sereened a number of mutants which defect in their interaction. It was revealed from the analysis of these mutants that LON2 and autophagy are responsible for the functional transition of peroxisomes in light condition.

Free Research Field

植物細胞生物学